The Fault in Our Dialogue

So I finally got around to reading John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars after hearing all the hype about how awesome it is. The book was so fast paced that I read it in just a few hours. I was left with the impression that it was good, but it wasn’t anything to really rave about. Yes, it had its touching moments and brought a tear to my eye here and there, but I suspect I would have enjoyed it more if I was reading it as a teenager.

My major (and pretty much only) issue with the book was the pretentious dialogue. From reading others’ reviews, I understand that pretentious dialogue and highfalutin nerdy characters are hallmarks of John Green’s writing, but in real life, I can’t stand pretentious people, so that aspect of the book turned me off. I don’t think there’s a single teenager in the world who talks like that (well, maybe the very gifted), and I know that when I was a teenager, my peers and I certainly didn’t talk like that.

I enjoyed the book’s humor and some of the events in the plot. Although the way the two main characters talked was annoying, it was very hard not to sympathize with them. The one sex scene in the book was done in good taste, which is more than I can say for many other YA books I’ve read recently.